12/17/09

Understanding How We Got Here

As promised in an earlier post, Dr. Thomas Sowell, one of the best thinkers in America explains in plain language what caused the Housing Boom and Bust in his book of that name. The links on the right point to articles published in the Investors Business Daily which are actually a chapter from that book.

As always, there is plenty of blame to pass around, but there are always root causes as well. The chapter is titled "The Politics of the Housing Boom" and it takes the mystery out of the question about what some of those causes are. We ignore those causes at our future peril. Of course I suggest you read the book itself, but the chapter referenced should suffice in lieu of that.

Thomas Sowell, a man with no political aspirations, or someone like him, should have been President of the United States. If that had happened, the first black President could have been a triumph instead of the unmitigated disaster it has become. A leader in every sense of the word, his grasp on this issue is only one of many he has a grasp on. A common sense man for uncommon times.

You can read the series on the right. And you won't want to miss listening to a pod-cast of an interview of Dr. Sowell here. It covers several topics and is enlightening as well as entertaining.